Any career development person worth his salt, wants you to have a career that is constantly rising. Hence, that is why you should have three CDs worth of material already written when you approach your career development person or music industry executive. (For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, see my last article entitled “The Music Industry- Here is what a young artist needs to know to be a star.”)
A good career development person will survey your material, ask you to throw away the songs that didn’t survey well, then ask you to write some more songs, survey again, etc. until he can finally place your songs in an order that results in your first CD being good, your second CD better, and your third CD best of the three. He will do all of this by surveying your material. Some survey techniques are so accurate that they can even tell you where your song will place in the top 40–number 15 or number 35.
Why does your career development person do this? Because you can actually lose money and ruin your career with a poorly planned number one hit.
Now remember, rankings in the top 40 are determined by air play, not sales. So, here is how it works.
If you are an unknown artist, and you release your best song first, and your agents and managers and executives at the music companies are good salesmen, you might start getting airplay. If you get enough airplay you might break into the charts at say number 35. Music stores and major download services, however, probably won’t carry it right away, because 1) there are lots of people vying for “shelf” space, so to speak and the music stores are going to wait and see how this new artist does before they commit to giving you any space. (After all you might break in at number 35 and be gone from the charts the very next week.) So let us just say there is not necessarily a mad dash to get your number 35 hit into the stores and onto the shelves; and 2) even if there is a huge demand (maybe you broke into the charts at number 15 your very first week, it is still going to take awhile for the music company to press the CDs and ship them to the stores. (often weeks).
It has happened numerous times in the past that a song will zoom from say the number 35 to the top number 1 spot BEFORE any CDs can be shipped to the music stores. By the time the stores do get the CDs, the song has fallen down the charts and is no longer getting the airplay on its way out (at say number 38) that it got on its way up to number 1. Let’s say the music executives representing you zealously pressed 500,000 CDs when your song was number one, but now that it has finally arrived at the stores it is not getting airplay anymore. People start forgetting about it and the actual sales only amount to say 50,000 units.
The music company loses money on this scenario because the cost to manufacture and ship the 500,000 CDs exceeds what they made on the 50,000 actual unit sales. Now, internet distribution and sales have made it a lot easier to counter this kind of scenario, but it still can happen with inexperienced, and inept music executive making the wrong decisions.
Now here is what an experience career development executive would do. Again he would survey your material and your first release would be a song that he knows will break into the top 40 at about 39, rise to number 30 than fizzle out after that. No one worries very much about getting CDs into stores or anything like that. What this accomplishes, however, is everyone becomes aware of you. The stores are aware of you, the internet downloading services are aware of you, and fans in general are aware of you. After all, a number 30 hit on your first release is not too shabby.
Now your second release is going to be a surveyed song that your career development person knows will place in the low 20s or high teens on the charts. So now all the people that were made aware of you by your first release realize that this is even a better song, that there really is something to you, and the mad dash to get you on the shelf DOES begin. Everyone knows you are not a one hit wonder and that this second release is going to make every one money.
Now imagine what happens when your third release does even better and makes it to number 10 on the charts. Then imagine what happens when your second album comes out. Well the people are lined up to buy it sight unseen, and when they hear it and it is even a better album, when you have three top ten and one number one hits off of it, you career is well on its way to being established forever.
When your third album comes out with your three number one hits. You are pretty much guaranteed to be in the music business as long as you want.
Now imagine the opposite. Suppose you released your best song first and every thing got progressively worse from there. Does a “one hit wonder” ring a bell. Does anyone even remember the names of the numerous groups who have done just that? NO.
So a word to the wise: Use experienced career development people. Survey your material. Do it smart. Do it right. Be successful.
(c) 2007 Stan Medley
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Help answer the question aboutUS Music Industry
Whats the best way to get into the music industry?Me and my band want to go mainstream and were called forever since yesterday, there's 4 of us and we would like ur help
Much appreciated
Well, first of all, the K701s are the headphones, not the turntable. The deck itself is an Avid Acutus – also made in the UK like the Rega turntables. A Rega’s very good, but it doesn’t have any suspension system; bit of a flaw in what is essentially a backwards seismograph. This one kills off most vibration that’s not from the groove.
NICE CANS
whats so special about the k701 turntaBLE? I MEAN WHAT MAKES IT HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE THE REST. LIKE REGA?
The “voiceover talent” is Lauren Graham of Gilmore Girls! Please leave her alone.
I’ll have to keep settling for my K601s
It sounds like Jeff Lynne doing a variation of his song “Mr. Blue Sky.” It’s all there, the bouncy music, the smooth backing vocals … very Jeff Lynne/ELO.
anyone know what the song is playing in the background? i like it!
And for the rest, there’s the AMEX PLum Card
Do you actually think like this? “The voiceover bla bla bla, its a commercial stop examining it like anyone cares what you have to say.
Possibly the IRS or an Entertainment Guild could better direct you. You can contact your local IRS office or one of the Entertainment organizations at this site
http://www.afm.org/resources/labor-unions
Not the best answer–but a start
Its all about looks today, talent seems to have become meaningless. A lot of the greats wouldnt get a contract today bc they dont look hot by todays standards. So all we get is crap musically , its all eye candy. MTV changed things bc music became about visual rather than sound. Most of the great bands are pre MTV era.
From one who was there, it was minimal. Instead, it was more the other way around….protest music reflected popular sentiment among the American youths' peace/anti-war movement, not influenced it. Country Joe didn't convince draft dodgers to burn their cards and run to Canada; he sang about them doing that. And John Fogarty and CCR didn't convince Congress and others to to allow for draft deferrals due to colletge, allowing America's "fortunate sons" to remain at home while to lower classes went to the front lines; instead they sang about the economic disparity of the front line soldiers. The music simply gave yet another dimension to a voice of the the anti-war movement.
HTH
I completely agree. This is why I have been listening to XM Satelite Radio for the last 3 years…
I still listen to regular radio every now and then, but an hour or so later (and after hearing one song 3 times), I no longer listen.
XM or Sirius is THE way to go…
The music industry is a corporate cash machine where marketing and money rules over real talent.
Music has been reduced from an art form to a product to be bought or sold.
Yes, people are lame everywhere and the popular music that young people listen to here in the US is terrible. On the other hand, isn't most popular music terrible?
sadly, it's a resounding yes. Charice Pempengco ought to be another Sarah Geronimo if it weren't for Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey. OPM doesn't have an identity with the way it sounds. J-Rock/J-Pop is distinctly unique because it barely relies on synthesizers or turntables, they emphasize the use of all types of instruments like brass, strings, and piano to blend with their specific genre; and it has a certain tempo and rhythm to it. (Flow, Orange Range, Asian Kung Fu Generation, Mr. Children, Skapara, Utada Hikaru, Ken Hirai, Yui… their music sounds unique)
it's not that Japanese Music has worldwide recognition, but it's develoved a following among those interested in their culture especially J-Drama and Anime. their hit singles are ususally made into a show's theme song, and if that show becomes a hit, the artist/band who sang the theme song is recognized.
does talent alone dictate if an artist or band should gain worldwide recognition? of course not. we have a few talented artists here… but the reality is if the Americans don't know them, the rest of the world won't know them.
*edit for Karlo C*
you'll be surprised how poetically deep most Japanese lyrics are when translated to english, it actually makes OPM lyrics look bad.
sample Jap lyrics in english:
"even if it’s light like fireworks, that can never be caught
one more time, one more time… I want to reach out for it."
"the sky I looked up at was blue and perfectly clear, I decided to open the locked window, the moment that changes me and the world is always right here with me."
"may our two winding roads merge here together and become a rainbow."
"where did the burning tears, the outcry of love, the sparkling days vanish off to? if we keep wandering down this aimless path… we'll never go back to the way things used to be"
Maybe for now—-but not forever. If you notice with more and more upcoming artists this country has, plus the ones that are becoming more popular here from overseas—-traditional "black" music is slowly starting to "fade" and/or incorporate other musical genres from around the world. I personally don't care for Rap, RnB or other typical Black music. I can't say what type if music will dominate in the future,but I doubt the African music we know today will.
This question is too generalized.
Even a guess is unlikely to come close because of the sheer number of songs that have actually been produced, let alone published.
The Library of Congress or the US Copyright Office might be able to provide some info regarding the number of songs that have been submitted for copyright protection, however you would have to be able to weed out the songs submitted but never actually produced – this will most likely be an astounding number in and of itself.
Sorry but I haven't a clue where you would start your research in the UK.